NEW YORK.- The robots are coming! The robots are coming! The Mattress Factory and Robot 250 have partnered to present the eleventh installment in the museum’s Gestures Exhibition Series. Meet the Made features installations and performances that happen “in real time” within the Mattress Factory’s satellite gallery at 1414 Monterey Street, located on Pittsburgh’s North Side.

The exhibition runs through August 31, 2008.

Artists are utilizing the gallery space not only to display their work, but to produce their work. The space resembles an open studio in which visitors can “drop-in” to watch, and at times participate in, the construction of the artworks.

“This is a show about robotics, and more importantly, the relationship between robotics and all aspects of human culture,” says Ian Ingram, Artist-in-Residence of the CREATE Lab at the CMU Robotics Institute and co-organizer of Meet the Made. “My hope is that this show deals with the inevitability that robots will play a very large role in the future of mankind and will greatly change the underpinnings of the human condition.”

In 2001, the Mattress Factory initiated the Gestures Exhibition Series to present new works by regional artists. In each exhibition, participants include individuals from a wide range of creative practices. Artists participating in Meet the Made include Bob Bingham and Claire Hoch, Jesse Hulcher, John Peña, Betsy James DiSalvo, Lauren Frances Adams and Jake Peterson, Chris Lisowski, Stuart O. Anderson and Shaun Slifer, Adam Shreckhise, Anna E. Mikolay, Derk Wolmuth, Jon Rubin, Chris Beauregard, and Kim Beck.

In addition to Meet the Made, the Mattress Factory will host several additional Robot 250-related events and exhibitions. A complete list of related programming follows.